After and Before a Wizard
by Shadow.Holic
Summary: Max grows up, and the family wizard competition is held; after the competition, Max grows up some more.


**After and Before a Wizard**  
><em>Wizards of Waverly Place; Max-centric<em>

_Notes:_ Unbetaed. Can't believe I wrote Disney Channel fic, but it's hard not to notice how Max is always shoved to side, and then I just had to write something about him not being a complete idiot. Can I blame bad grammar on Max?

* * *

><p>The first thing that Max does when the competition starts is lose his replica of the family wand. He expected it to happen at some point, because it wouldn't be him if he didn't, but he can honestly say he didn't expect to not fit even one spell in there, and now he won't ever be able to know what it's like to cast a spell from a titanium wand.<p>

His siblings told him what the competition would be like, of course. Although it was more like Justin told him while Alex grumbled. Justin always tries to do the right thing and he wouldn't be able to stand the unfairness even if it gave Justin the powers, but Max also knew that Alex would eventually cave without Justin anyway, because Alex might be selfish sometimes, but never about the important things. And the family wizard competition is about the most important thing there is.

Justin closes in on the shiny globe of magic, and well it's _Justin,_ but Alex shouts and Max knows she's going to do something. She doesn't get the chance though, because Max does it first, doesn't bother with proper recitation and just points his fingers with the spell in mind and a large wind blows both his siblings away. He's suddenly glad he loses and breaks his wand so often, because added with how he started learning magic with Justin and Alex even before he got his wand, and he's been using wandless magic far more than his siblings combined.

Max tries to run forward, but he trips and it's Alex's puddle, just like Justin warned. He struggled to get up, for the first time in his life uncomfortable in dirt, and Alex's almost touching the golden sphere now, but it flies away and oh, there's the wand, why didn't he notice it was just there?

Right, the powers. Justin said something about proving yourself before getting the powers. Max tries to think of a spell, any spell, but it's Justin's turn and he creates a huge wall of fire, blocking Max and Alex. Max jumps away, but Alex doesn't look surprised as she surrounds herself with water and steps through the fire wall. Max tries to think. Fire. Elements. What elements are there? Water would work, of course, but water's mostly Alex's thing and Max hates showering. Air. Air always came easy for him, but it's not going to help with putting out fire. Unless he goes over the fire and ah, he should have thought of that sooner but hey better sooner than later, and he levitates himself through the air above the fire.

When Max finally gets to see what's going on, Justin's closing in again, but this time Alex stops him. Max dashes forward, and he casts the first spell he can think of, this time with the family wand and it feels even more glorious than he imagined and he's going to remember this_ forever._

Alex shouts at Max, because he might have used her puddle spell, but it was her fault for using it first. Max approaches the golden globe for the first time, and he's amazed by it's beauty once more, floating within reach but still so far away and his siblings are going to catch up anytime now. Justin grabs Max's legs and pulls him down, but even before that happens, Max sees the powers flutter away, like he doesn't matter. Maybe it was always Justin or Alex or Justin and Alex, but Max has to try, doesn't he?

Max tries another wind spell, but Alex creates a wall first, and Max remembers what the final element is now, moments too late, because Alex reaches the golden floaty thing, and it's all over.

Alex's flying, and Max tries to remember how to breath, because all of a sudden he can't get in enough air. Balloons, he thinks, balloons and strong lungs, and the last spell, what was the last spell he cast? It's important, it's the last piece of magic he's ever going to be near to, and he can't remember, what's that thing he has to do before everything's over, he has to breath and he can't feel anymore, something wrong and he can't feel a thing.

"Congratulations," Justin says, and that's just like Justin, to be happy for other people even when Max feels like he's falling with both feet on the ground and Justin must feel the same, he has to because Max can't be alone on this thing.

Their parents rushes over, and their dad's smiling so wide it hurts to look at, shouting, "Alex, you did it!" Mom's doing that Spanish thing of hers again, Max never understood that, and even Uncle Kelbo's around, because he had to be there standing watch as the family wizard of the previous generation.

Finally, they look at Max and Justin, and Max almost laughs because wow, he doesn't often get paired up with Justin. Dad's walking over, being sympathetic and Max remembers dad also went through the same thing once, slightly differently but the end result's the same. Justin smiles like he's okay, and maybe Justin is, but Max can't say it, can't look at Alex because for one tiny period before Justin and Alex both decided to reenter the competition, Max almost thought he had a chance and hope is disturbing, okay. Even when Max thinks maybe he always knew Alex was going to win, because Alex never loses.

"Con-" he tries to say, but he starts choking, and he tries to remember about the lung thing again and who cares, Alex's too busy trying not to smile itoo/i wide and Max knows Alex's not a bad person but he can't, it's just.

"It's okay," dad says, what does he even mean, and there's things like, "Come on, let's go home," and Max nods, because he understands home, and he wants to go there now.

* * *

><p>This is the way things should be. Max was always just average, or maybe below average, and occasionally dumb besides being plain weird. Alex and Justin are extraordinary. For all his life, Max's always known how incredible his siblings are. Justin knows thousands of spells and Alex knows how to use magic even without remembering spells, while Max is just in between.<p>

This way, Alex can be with Mason, and Max isn't planning on marriage anytime soon, but at least he won't have to come up with a lame excuse to break up with his girlfriend. Maybe that should have given him a hint. Justin dated a vampire (this one Max remembers clearly because he was involved, kind of), and a werewolf, and some other creatures before and after that and Max's not really into remembering his brother's dating history, but he does remember that even the humans Justin dated are weird in their own ways. Alex's dating a werewolf, and like all her other relationships, Alex's planning on doing that forever. Max, he's always been dating the normal ones, girls he likes at school that are kind, nice and sophisticated and treat him normally. This should probably have told him that he doesn't want it enough, that he's not focusing on the magic part of his life and now it's over anyway so whatever.

Justin's depressed, but in that Justin kind of way that means he's making bigger plans, plans that involve using Justin's greater knowledge, the kind that Max doesn't have.

Alex starts secondary wizard training, and she hates it, but she does it more properly than she does any other study, which isn't much but it's still more than anyone thought she could do. Max knows she's doing it for her brothers, so maybe he's ready to forgive her, but it's still so hard talking to her and they never spoke much even before the competition, so he lets Justin do the talking for them.

Justin and Alex do a lot of talking. Max thinks Justin's helping Alex with her magic, because even without magic Justin still knows more like dad knows more than Uncle Kelbo, which just proves more how the competition doesn't make sense, and that's something coming from someone like Max.

Max doesn't make plans beyond high school. He's not sure what he _can_ do, besides taking over the sub station, and it seems like his father's not against that idea either. Alex's doing her own thing these days, getting more abnormal as the days go by, and she doesn't even deny it when people say she's weirder than Max now. Max thinks Alex doesn't care anymore, now that she has her own world to explore. She stays at home, but she spends all her time in the lair, or maybe she's out through the portal-Max wouldn't know, he doesn't go to the lair anymore. There's nothing there worth seeing.

Or maybe there is, and Max doesn't want to see it, because he'd just miss it more.

Sometime in between, Alex breaks up with Mason. Max remembers, because this is likely the biggest event of the year, and Max doesn't understand why Alex's always crying, since _she_ was the one that decided they weren't going to be together forever like she thought. Mason howls outside the sub station a lot, which Max thought was exciting at first but soon turns annoying because it always sounds the same anyway and it scares away customers, and Alex says that's why, because Mason's too loyal for her or something and she doesn't deserve it, the good ior/i the bad. Max doesn't understand, but Harper and Justin does, so they comfort her while Max watches from the sidelines like always.

Max doesn't remember the last time he dated. It was a girl, and she had a name, but after a while even he can't deny that he's stopped caring and the girl took off so her name mattered even less.

He's surprised when graduation comes near. He's getting an average of C plus, which actually shocks people because most people think he's dumb, which Max never denies. He's not smart, but he's smart enough to know he isn't as brilliant as Justin or Alex, so he's not as stupid as people seem to think he is either.

The sub station would be a great plan, Max thinks. Like dad says, _someone_ has to take over the sub station, and they might not sell much but they can't get by with just a cook and a waiter either. Justin, whether he kept his magic or not, was always meant for more; Max has no idea what Justin's studying but he knows it's difficult and complicated and only for people like Justin. Alex prefers the unexpected and wants the world, and that's why she has the magic. That leaves Max, and really, he's more ordinary than people think. So _normal_ compared to the rest of his family, which means the sub station's perfect for him.

Max has been making sandwiches since he's tall enough to reach the table from a stool. He's been waiting tables before he could probably reach the counter.

He can be normal. He _is_ normal. And that's what he's going to be for the rest of his life.

* * *

><p>Justin's graduating from college when Juliet comes back. Max isn't sure how that happened, but he knows magic (and thereby Alex) is involved.<p>

Juliet has an appearance of a young human, now. It would age like a normal human body would. For all purposes, Juliet is human again, except that she still hates sunlight, even if Justin says it should be safe for her to go outside when the sun's out. Maybe Juliet would be willing to try it someday, but Justin's too happy to have Juliet back in his life to be bothered with something like his girlfriend being afraid of the sun.

Max is happy for Justin. He heard about the experiments Justin and Alex did together, and only now realizes that they were for Juliet. He thought Justin had already moved on, but apparently Max was wrong. Juliet is special for Justin.

Juliet's still classified as a vampire, but retired, just like Justin's a retired wizard so there's no problem with them being together. This time around, Juliet's going to die one day like a human would, which makes her cry everytime someone mentions it around her because '_it's like a dream come true, oh god, all I ever wanted was to have a full life, one that's real, and Justin how are you real'_, which would cue more public displays of affection that makes Mark go ewwwwwww. It's a good thing, though, because Justin's also not a wizard now, and Max realizes that to Justin, it's all over.

It's been over for two years, of course. Max knows this. He's just not sure he feels it. It feels like it's not over, like there's something waiting even though he doesn't know what.

Justin already knows what. He's already found what he wants and he also found Juliet, and Max knows they're going to be together forever, like the way Alex often says about every couple, but this time it's really going to happen.

Justin moves out soon after, and that's when Max notices that Alex's started to hang around him more often. It's sort of scary to think about, because while Alex hasn't moved out, they've always given each other space. Max is just a little scared of Alex, while Alex thinks Max is gross even though he's working full time in a deli shop now and he keeps himself clean most of the time, so a little distance works for both of them. Except even though Alex should probably be working on something in her next wizardry project, she's always home, and nearly always not very far from Max.

Maybe Alex is a little lonely, now that Justin's not around. Or maybe, after helping Justin finding out what he wants, she wants to help Max find out about his non-wizard future. It's weird, Alex helping people, but it's happened before so it's not impossible.

Max doesn't notice until Justin and Juliet visit one day and Juliet points out, "Hey, the lair looks deserted, Alex doesn't go in there anymore, does she." Max tries not to feel angry that Alex's not working on her magic, because it's her choice, her magic, and it has nothing to do with Max. Not anymore.

Then the whole family learns that Alex won an art award and now she's famous, surprise, Alex is even more fabulous even if every Russo, including Harper, thinks she's evil. She starts making money from her art pieces almost instantly after that, and two month laters she moves out with Harper in tow. Harper is sort of a writer now, except she thinks she's never going to write about wizards, so there's a paradox in there somehow. But time and magic are full of errors anyway, so Max thinks that's normal, even if Alex thinks it's wrong and has been trying to convince Harper otherwise.

Max continues working in the sub station. His mother's still working as a waiter, but his father's mostly retired now, working only when he feels like it. After busy days, mom gets mad when she sees dad resting on the sofa, but on other days they're still close like always. Surprisingly, business is better than ever, which just proves that Max was right, he really was born for the sub station.

In fits of boredom, Max revives To The Max along with four other new sandwiches, all of which their dad complained about but sold perfectly well. Sure, the menu looks a lot more complicated and everyone asks what these things really contain so Max actually has to _explain,_ but as much as he hates doing that, it makes him happy to know that people like his sandwiches. And if the critics want to call his sandwiches innovative and _fresh_ (he still laughs at that), then why not? He might not be doing much with his life compared to Justin and Alex, but he's not bad at this and he can work with what he has. It usually includes throwing anything he finds in the kitchen together, but he also knows how to make sure their fridge is stocked and how to get Alex to help without her robbing him blind now, and he thinks maybe, he's okay with doing this forever.

It doesn't explain why he applied for the local community college, and his parents would probably laugh if he told them he's thinking of taking business-related courses, but there are things in life that just don't need to be explained.

* * *

><p>Justin comes home for Christmas, and Alex never moved far, so the entire Russo family is cramped inside the living room. Harper helping in the kitchen, their dad and mom lounging on the couch, Justin and Alex arguing about something or the other-everything feels so familiar, it reminds Max of things he no longer wants to think about.<p>

Feeling choked, Max decides to go outside for a walk. He isn't thinking of moving out, because he has a perfectly good home here and there's no point in wasting rent, but sometimes it feels like he doesn't have his own space. Sure, there's his room, and Justin and Alex's rooms are deserted so he pops in and pokes around, but it's probably not the same as having a place of his own. He feels like there's not enough air, and without magic (he promised himself he wouldn't think about this anymore), there's no way of finding enough of that here in this city.

And it's like that, snowing outside and freezing when Alex joins him and says, out of the blue, that she doesn't want the magic anymore.

Max thinks Alex's crazy, but that's not what he says first. Instead, he just laughs, because Alex must be joking, even if she sounds serious. "Give them to Justin, then. He was doing all those experiments with you, bet he's dying to have his magic back."

"Those experiments were for Juliet," Alex says. "And I already asked him. He refused."

Max tries not to be offended. He's close with his siblings, but Alex and Justin always has something going on between them. Justin getting Alex out of the messes she made, Alex accusing Justin of everything and getting him involved, Justin still helping Alex with her magic after she took it from them.

"Because you're all talk," Max says, not looking at Alex. "Just throw them at him and he'd accept. Or schedule a power transfer, he'd go to anything official."

"True, that," Alex says, but she takes a step closer to Max and she's way too close to him now. It's uncomfortable. No one except their mom comes close to him, not if they can help it, and Max's good with that. Alex doesn't even wrinkle her nose in disgust when she says, "But I'm serious, Max. I haven't been using them. I tried to, but I never liked adventures. Using them for my advantage, yes; going on magical adventures, no. And I have a job, one that requires my full attention. Do you know how _annoying_ it is knowing I'm not supposed to fall in love with anyone I meet? I know you don't want to stay in the sub station forever."

So that's it, then. Alex (and possibly Justin) is feeling sorry for Mark, even though he's perfectly happy. Sort of. Like, fifty percent of the time, which is half, and good enough for Max.

"I'm the one who has Roy, not you," Max says. "I didn't even use them much, when I had them. Now, and dad...have you even told dad?"

Alex looks confused for a second or two, then she shrugs it off and scoffs. "Of course not, this is between us."

"Alex," Max says, feeling very much like the younger brother he's always been but hadn't felt like for a while. "You're insane. I don't know why you're saying this, but you're going to regret this later, so you should really stop now or I might just take your offer and you'll regret it forever and I'll be guilty forever because I won't ever have the stupidity to give _magic_ up."

Alex smiles, then. Scarily. Max hadn't seen that smile directed at him for a while, not since Alex started venturing out into the world and doing things she claims is beyond normal inartistic people's capability of understanding.

"Just think about it, Max. Think about it soon, because otherwise, I'm calling for a retest."

"What?" Max yelps. It's a totally justified response to what Alex just said.

"If you won't take the magic, I'll call for a retest," Alex says, grinning. "And if you don't come, our family will lose all our magic forever. If you don't fight during the retest, the fight won't end, either. We'll do it again, only this time, we'll actually be _adults._"

Even though Alex still says the word adult like it's an insult, Max thinks Alex's proud to have something of her own, secretly. Alex still isn't making sense. They already were adults when the competition was held, that was the ipoint,/i they had to wait until Max was grown up so that they could all fight in the competition together.

"You'll still win," Max points out. "You were already good, and I don't remember any spells."

"Yes, you do," Alex says. "You say them when you're making sandwiches."

"I do?" Max asks, surprised. He never noticed that.

"Of course not," Alex says, just like Alex. "But see, you do remember. And it's the four elements, the first magic we learned together. Whatever I learned-and I learned nothing, really-in the past three years won't help me."

"Yes they will," Max says.

"We'll see," Alex says, then she iwinks,/i and Max frowns. He hates it when Alex tries to be cryptic, it never ends well for him. Or anyone except sometimes Alex.

* * *

><p>He has one week to relearn the magic. Their combined magic in Alex was divided into three parts once more.<p>

The moment Max feels magic in himself again, feels the magic drumming in his body, feels something in him doing he's not sure what but singing comes close-and he falls onto the floor, in shock and for the first time in his life, he thinks he feels fear. Too much. This is too much, and not enough, and he's going to die, this is going to kill him and he's going to die, this is too much for him to handle.

Their dad helps him up, and Max can still stand, but the magic is still too loud and he can't hear or see so dad has to guide him back home for him to lie down.

Six hours later he wakes up from a deep sleep, and he still feels the magic, except now it's familiar instead of overwhelming and scary. From Alex, he hears that the same thing happened to Justin, and Max doesn't feel too bad about nearly fainting because Justin _did_ faint.

He walks to the corner of his room he never visits, the one with junk even he's not interested in anymore, and he sticks his hand into the pile. Digging into the mountain of junk, his fingers come in contact with a long piece of wood, and he digs it out. Not just it. His wand. He's allowed to think of the word once more. His _wand,_ and for the first time in years, it starts talking to him, saying stories of the world he was shut out of.

And, nearly laughing, Max casts the levitation spell, the first spell he did when his powers came in the first time.

Later, he realizes that he can't do this. He can't lose this feeling again. The first time was hard enough, but it was sudden and he didn't know what it was like when he lost his magic. Now he knows, and if this is fear, Max thinks Justin is wrong-he doesn't need fear. He doesn't want it.

Justin comes to talk to him, and Max is startled to find Justin crying in the middle of talking.

"I don't want it anymore," Justin says, shaking, "I _told_ myself I didn't want it anymore, I have a successful career and I refuse to endanger Juliet ever again, but this, I can't lose this..."

His brother never comes to him for advice, or to talk about his_ feelings,_ so Max decides to comfort Justin. This is almost a win too, right? Max puts a hand on Justin's shoulder and says, "Well, since Alex will win anyway, let's think of this as the first Christmas present Alex ever gave us. Isn't that amazing, Alex giving us presents?"

Justin looks at him weird, like Max's returned to his sixteen years old self-the time before the competition-and is saying something weird again, but Max's pretty sure what he said should be considered normal in all eighty states. Eighty, because there are thirty states laying in Max's bedroom. See, he can count too.

It's scary to think about how convenient magic is, along with everything else it is. Alex is the laziest person Max knows, and even though she might have grown up a little since then, Max still doesn't understand why she would chance losing magic. He tries not to think of Alex's motives, no doubt there's trouble laying that way, and instead tries to enjoy magic while he still has them. Visiting places he forgot, teleporting down the stairs instead of walking. He steps into the lair, and realizes that it even _smells_ familiar, that smell of old books, artifacts and something indescribable. Like magic, except magic doesn't really smell of anything.

On the third day, Justin pops in, no doubt teleporting after work, and starts testing Max on his knowledge of elemental spells. Max refuses at first because, what the hell? But Justin insists, and Max guesses he should be used to his siblings being weird and doing things their ways. Justin should be trying to find ways to finally win this time around instead of trying to help Max, but if Alex wasn't crazy then they wouldn't be in this situation anyway. Maybe the whole world's gone crazy and Max just hasn't been let in on the joke yet.

Max makes a few sandwiches through wandless magic, and not all that long ago, his dad would be there to yell at him, but there's no one there now so he does. Not enough to risk people finding out, he's _not stupid,_ but enough that he feels the thrill and he hates how wonderful it is.

Two days later, Alex drops by and _attacks_ him. Alex gets frustrated when she has to adjust the spell, throwing in more of her magic, and Max knows she must be regretting having her magic split now. He gets their mom and dad to take over the sub station for the day, and goes upstairs to deal with the aftereffects of having his fingers turned into sponges. Later, Max throws himself onto the sofa and turns on the television; Alex takes out a drawing pad and says she's brainstorming, but every few minutes she throws a spell towards Max. When Max tries to talk, all she does is laugh at his reflexes. He doesn't know why he's supposed to defend when he likes being a trashcan, likes having bits of laundry hanging over him, likes taking spells and feeling them all around him. It's very nearly the same feeling as casting a spell, and maybe Max should ask Alex to do this for him more often. She helped Justin when he needed magic, right?

And then finally, he's laying on his bed, staring at the clock on the wall and thinking, it's tomorrow. He doesn't know what's going to happen, but the competition is happening again tomorrow, and this time Max knows what he's losing.

* * *

><p>The family wand looks weird in his hand. For the past few years, Alex's been the one carrying it around, and Max's thought of it as Alex's for just as long. After being transported here though, he doesn't have his own wand with him anymore, and the family wand is more powerful. For now, it's also his, no matter how short it's going to be.<p>

The golden globe of magic floats in the center of the field, and Max shivers. Someone shouts start. No one moves. Max doesn't know what Justin and Alex are thinking, but he's afraid, and he doesn't want to do this again only to lose everything.

"What are you two doing?" Alex says. Justin looks at her with wide eyes. "If you two don't start running fast," she continues with a laugh, "I'm going to take this again. With _ease._"

Justin glares, and Alex goes first, then, with a small-range raining spell that pours down so hard on Justin and Max that Max trips over. It doesn't last long, and Max shrugs off the water. Max forces himself to move, pushing all thoughts out of his head, and maybe he should have done that long ago. Thinking was never his strong suit, and he's actually good at not thinking at all so what was he doing, all this time?

Fire spell. He couldn't attack directly, not when it's his siblings he's up against, but he could make the spell tear Alex away from her route. While Alex's busy stopping herself so she doesn't slam into the ball of fire, Max begins running, going directly for the goal. Justin acts after that, this time setting up an entire wall of fire around Max and Alex. _Again._ Heat flares up around him, the unnaturally green magical grass beneath them untouched, and Max takes in the wonder of it all. This is _magic,_ brighter and more real than anything else he's felt in the past three years, and it might not be his, but it _could_ be and he's going to fight for it.

He remembers floating above fire, but this time he chooses to blast water from the end of his wand, one of the easiest water spells powered up ten notches. He steps through the fire and sees Justin getting closer, but Justin hesitates, and the floating gold ball decided to zap away to another corner of the arena.

It's closer to Alex now, and she's dashing towards it, more earnest than ever. They're adults now, age has changed their appearances along with everything else, but the look in her eyes as she looks at magic remains the same. Max doesn't have the time to wonder if he looks like that too, even after all this time. Justin looks _frantic_ as he realizes he missed his chance, stealing a glance at Max before running after Alex.

Max follows Justin by instinct, and watches Justin trap Alex's legs in stone. But Alex doesn't struggle, doesn't shout either. She laughs out loud, waving her wand and showing her experience with magic by breaking apart the stones with thick green vines.

Justin is closest now, and Alex's still stepping out of the crumbled piles of rocks, so Max raises his wand and thinks, come on come on what spell any spell come _on,_ he vaguely remembers using Alex's own spell against her and casts it, that puddle spell that got Justin every time before. He turns around to see that Alex's also cast a spell, and realizes that it's the exact same spell he just cast, resulting in Justin fumbling his way through a three hundred feet mud slide that leads him far away from his goal.

"Seriously?" Justin shouts, standing up only to fall face down again, and to Max's own surprise, he begins to laugh, joining Alex's delighted laughter.

Max shares a look with Alex, and they start running towards the floating ball of gold together, and _of course_ it immediately hightails out of their way into a complete difference direction, but Max thinks he gets it. Right here, right now, he's happy for the first time in three years and he knows why. This is magic, and this is them. This could be the last day Max ever casts another spell, but it's okay, because this moment will forever be the one that reminds him of who he is (was, he does sort of know grammar).

Justin finally gets himself away from the puddle, and then they start exchanging more spells between the three of them, all the time smiling-practically glowing-from the magic.

And Max really wants to win. He doesn't need to, not anymore, he just really, really _wants_ to. Somehow, that means even more.

Alex drowns Max and Justin in...paint. Or colored water, but honestly, it's probably paint. Max doesn't know how this fits in with the rules, but it's blocking his vision and artists should be forbidden from throwing paint everywhere. There needs to be limits, canvas-like things like paper, or walls, but not people. It smells like paint, too.

The golden globe goes towards one end of the arena, and hey, that's not fair, Justin and Alex are closer to that direction! Max starts running, except there is no way he can catch up unless he thinks of something. Then all of a sudden he does have an idea of sorts, so maybe he's kind of a genius too. Max sticks a wind spell underneath his shoes so that he's speeding towards his siblings, skating-style and _awesome._

By the time he catches up though, Justin and Alex will have reached the shiny ball too, and shit, _shit,_ he finally notices that he lost his wand again when he tries to think of another spell to cast and finds his own hands empty.

All three of them are running on the walls of the Colosseum, and before any of them reaches it, they're going to crash together. The magic sphere seems to sense this, slowly moving away from the railing, and all three of them reach out their arms, but this time the sphere plunges downwards, and Max doesn't think before he launches after it, and-

-his body tilts over the railing, and his siblings scream and Max is falling, free-falling down towards the ground, towards the impossibly green grass field, and Max knows that his brother and his sister would have their wands out, but he _can't_ let them save him, because not only would that be ridiculous (this is a competition, they're _competitors_), but magic would forever be out of his reach, because. Because. If he can't even use magic when he most needs it, how could he ever deserve magic?

Elemental magic. Breath. Air. Max closes his eyes and concentrates, and this all happens within seconds, him falling and pointing every bit of magic inside him towards the ground, everything and nothing going through his mind all at once while he focuses all his magic onto one point and creates the largest air cushion he can, not caring about the shape at all as he constructs all the wildest torrents of air he can summon.

And the arena _bursts._

And, and then he's _flying,_ mere seconds ago he was falling but now he's soaring in the air, gravity no longer a concern.

Max thought he knew happiness pretty well, but he didn't know it like this. This isn't the feeling of joy, this is being filled with joy, and he's so happy he just has to share, looks towards his siblings and realizes that they're on the floor, struggling to get up and, oh. _Oh._

He, he won?

Max looks at Justin and Alex awkwardly. Should he land? He's...he's flying, and it's wonderful, but it shouldn't be him, and he's confused. He hasn't felt this confused since he graduated from high school, since he first lost his magic and felt parts of himself being stripped away, since his father first handed him Alex's wizard manual and expected him to read it. He may have spent most of his life in confusion, but usually he can at least bump his way out-he has ino idea/i what he should do now.

"Max!" dad calls, and Max lowers himself, letting his shoes brush against the grass.

When Max looks up, Justin and Alex are walking towards him, and Max knows they must be feeling horrible. He feels like there's something wrong, because this wasn't supposed to happen. Alex should have won again, or Justin should have won, but now suddenly Max is the one with the magic and why must they be pitched against each other when they should all be on the same side? Justin's holding the family wand, and Max knows that's his copy of the wand, the only one that's real now. Max feels like he should apologize, should say something, but all he can think about is how everything, _everything_ is going to be different now.

Alex smiles, and Justin pats Max on the back. "You're going to be a wonderful wizard, Max."


End file.
